The 158th annual boat race between Oxford and Cambridge took place today in London’s river Thames. The event, which usually runs smoothly, was affected by various incidents that will spark numerous debates in the following days.

Oxford, last year’s winner, was the clear favourite amongst experts to win the competition. Nevertheless, due to a series of circumstances, the victory in the end went to Cambridge, bringing the tally of their wins to 81, against Oxford’s 76.

The race saw Oxford controlling since the beginning, and comfortably taking the lead for the first few instances. However, things changed right before the entrance to the last corner, when a man, swimming in the Thames, obstructed Oxford’s boat, causing for a suspension of the race.

John Garrett, the umpire for this year’s race, schedule for a restart that took place soon after. With the competition resumed, Oxford broke one of its oars when it clashed against Cambridge’s boat, effectively ending their hopes for a back-to-back win. Protests coming from Oxford were useless, as Mr Garrett judged Cambridge innocent, blaming Oxford for the incident.

As the race ended, Dr Alex Woods from Oxford lost consciousness, and had to be taken off the boat for medical assistance. News on Woods conditions are still not available.

Without a doubt, this year’s competition will be remembered for the years to come.

I meet Julia outside of Old Street tube station in east London for a talk on her work for the Move Your Money UK movement. When we sit down, and I ask her about the initiative, her eyes brighten up.

“We are fairly young,” she explains, “but the immediate attention the campaign has generated has been fantastic.” “The other day, for example, I was attending a conference on climate change, and the speaker encouraged everyone to join Move Your Money. It was unexpected, but really inspiring.”

Move Your Money UK (MYM) is a British movement, led by a small group of young and talented people, whose main goal is to inform the UK public on alternative banking and transform the country's banking sector.

Dissatisfied with the way banks handle their customers’ money, MYM originated as a protest against the current state of financial affairs, starting with the controversial system of bank bonuses.

“It’s unacceptable that banks such as RBS, which is largely owned by the government, do what they do with our money.”

The campaign asks people to move their money from the big banks that commit unethical investments, such as financing companies with a poor human rights record, to more local, community-focussed and ethical alternatives: credit unions, mutually-owned banks, or banks that have explicit ethical commitments.

“The aim is to reach out to UK citizens, and let them know that there are different ways for their hard-earned cash to be invested. Ways that can help their local community and where moving their money can have tangible effects that can be seen and touched.”

Previous events organized by MYM have been a great success. “A few weeks ago we organized initiatives outside of Barclays branches to raise public awareness, and the people’s response was extraordinary.”

The next event will take place this Thursday, on the 23rd of February, from 8:45 am to 9:15 am, outside of the Royal Bank of Scotland’s branch in High Holborn. “We hope to gather a large number of people, and spread the message further.”

Starting in March, MYM will organize "Move your Money Month", where it encourages people to choose a random day in March and pledge to move their money.

“The fact that people from completely different backgrounds have participated to past gatherings highlights the fact that irresponsible and unethical banking is something which affects every single one of us, independent of our interests, politics, or age.”

Before finishing our conversation, Julia reveals a secret to me: “I personally want to inspire 100 people to move their money to more ethical institutions. I am just at the beginning, but if I convince enough people, I hope to make a big difference.”

Judging by the look of things, Julia will not have any problem achieving this.

The upcoming mayoral elections and the 2012 London Olympics have put the City’s public transport system at the heart of recent debate.

Subject to scrutiny will be the transport system’s efforts to cope under extreme duress during the Olympic events. Expecting an extra 20 million commuters, London Metro officials described the Olympics as “the biggest sustained logistical challenge since the Second World War.”

As reporters commented: ”The fact that the PowerPoint presentation by the transport secretary, Justine Greening, crashed as she underlined that point at the launch didn't necessarily inspire confidence.”

The success of a series of initiatives, aimed at informing millions of fans in route to sporting competitions, will prove crucial for the positive outcome of the Event. Officials hope that the initiatives will cut at least 30% of traffic during the Olympic weeks.

Adding fuel to the debate are the upcoming May elections for London Mayor. Ken Livingston, Boris Johnson’s main political rival, frequently attacked his opponent on his stance on the City’s public transport service.

Since Johnson took office, fares have gone up by 7% angering most of the city’s population. Observers have frequently stated that whoever will be more convincing on the area of public transport will bring home the victory.

With London being the most populous municipality of the European Union, the 2012 Olympics and the May Elections will prove decisive for all us Europeans living in the city.

This rather delightful piece of street art snapped by Yours Truly near Gloucester Road Tube in the early afternoon. Correct me if I'm wrong, but surely South Kensington is the least of our worries when it comes to knife crime?

I've yet to see two investment bankers getting at it with their Global or WMF kitchen cleavers, whacking themselves to death with designer kitchenware and the latest in precision meat carving...but if you have, I'm willing to pay a rather obnoxious sum of money for the pictures.

"Michael Jackson's dead," said a young, tall, blonde woman whilst talking excitedly with her friends in a tunnel at Bank station. This was the only phrase I caught.

Neither child nor adult, black nor white, man nor woman, guilty nor innocent. Michael Jackson was a blank canvass of a man. He tried to please everyone. As I sat on the underground last night watching the news spread like wildfire through the tunnels and carriages, it seemed that he really got close.

On the tube, two young men, one Black-American, one White-British were speaking animatedly.
"He died broke in the end ... Absolute legend ... Heart attack." 
"Excuse me, sorry, who's died?" I asked.
"Michael Jackson." The American replied.
"No way, I heard a girl saying it earlier, but I didn't believe it. When did it happen?"
"About an hour ago." 
"Everyone already knows."
"Yeah, my mate got it on his iPhone just before we left the pub," said the British man.
"It's already in the LA times," added the American man.
"I'm really sad, even if he was possibly a criminal," I said.
"Ah, that thing with the kids, it's just people chasing money. Money talks," said the American man

A thirty-something pale blonde woman, wearing pearl earings and work-dress, turned to the man to her side, a Mediterranean looking stranger, wearing a sharp grey suit and pink shirt.
She said: "Oh the poor man, only fifty. He never had a childhood, always pushed into the limelight, even when he was a boy. Such a shame.
The grey-suited man said: "Anyone in their twenties to thirties will be defined by this man."
They continued talking about him demonstrating great knowledge of his biography and discography.

Across the carriage was a light-skinned black-British boy in his early twenties. A black man with a shaved head looked earnestly out from his t-shirt. Dates commemorating his life; nineteen-sixty-something to nineteen-ninety-something were printed below. Next to him was a Nepali-looking girl with a British accent. The boy asked who had died and I explained.
"He was supposed to be playing the O2, wasn't he?" the boy said.
"Yeah, he was," I replied.
He and his date looked stunned for the rest of the journey.

As I got off the train I looked at my phone. An friend of mine had sent me a message: "Michael Jackson's dead."

Over There' in London: timely commentary on EU’s current political troubles

''Harry Treadaway (left) and Luke Treadaway (right) | (Image: ©Simon Annand/ Royal Court Theatre) ''

Mark Ravenhill’s unconventional play about identical twins who are reunited after growing up in east and west Germany travelled from London to Berlin this spring. Our London reviewer calls it a timely commentary on the EU’s current political troubles. Our Berlin reviewer wonders if the British director reproaches the Germans with the repression of history. Cross-reviews from the Royal Court and Schaubühne theatre

London review by Sara Mojtehedzadeh

Article and photos by Alexandra Cacciatore

2nd April 2009

It’s time for me to come clean in two ways. First, I have never been to a protest. For the past week and half, the media in London has been rabidly spinning the G20 summit. The casual observer might have noticed that the local press seemed to be giving more coverage to the protests and supposed violence surrounding the summit than to the actual events and issues. It’s only the leaders of the top twenty economies getting together to talk about why the world is falling to pieces, yet the media swirled itself around a few sound bites about “bankers being strung up”. Pssst, I think it was meant metaphorically.

Second confession: I am an American and as such, am used to a slightly fear mongering media. Fox News, anyone? Perhaps, my second confession also explains the first. In his documentary that looks at the American healthcare system/ fiasco, Michael Moore suggests that the reason Americans are less inclined to protest or strike has to do with the fact that we have fewer social safety nets to fall back upon. If an American’s participation in public demonstration were to result in no longer having a job, that individual would suffer heavy financial consequences such as the loss of their job-sponsored healthcare. In case you Euros didn’t know, nearly half of all bankruptcies in the US are the direct or indirect result of medical costs. Compound that with the fact the average household has $12,000 of credit card debt (not mortgage or education related, just credit cards) and you can why Joe American might be stars and stripes terrified of protesting their own government, let alone capitalism.

London, 3rd April 2009. After G20 leaders agreed a mind boggling trillion dollar plan to tackle the global financial crisis, Gordon Brown declared that the London summit marked “the day the world came together to fight back against the global recession”, and the beginning of a “new world order”. President Obama heralded it as “historic" and "unprecedented”. But, how momentous was the London summit yesterday?

Fun and games at the summit family photo (Photo: Richard Lewis, Newsteam.co.uk/London Summit Flickr stream)

Today, there was much messing about in boats on the river Thames in leafy green South West London. Earlier this afternoon, rowers from Britain's historic universities, Oxford and Cambridge, slugged it out in the 155th boat race. However, there was much other activity on, and by, the river throughout the day...

The new Cafe Babel London team recently held their first event, held jointly with the Grimshaw society.

Entitled European Defence Policy: Where next? Josh Arnold-Forster, former special adviser to John Reid at the Ministry of Defence, spoke to a packed room on his view of the European Defence Policy. The talk led to a lively discussion between all attending and was followed by a drinks reception at the LSE.